The Cost of the Crown had its premiere at Leavesden Short Film Festival late last month, and it won an award.
The film, which was directed and co-written by Moe Acharki, was shown to an audience of Warner Bros. Studios staff and came away with an award for best cinematography. And it really is a beautiful film!
It’s a fantastic start for the film. We now obviously hope will go and get a few more screenings in the near future.
The Cost of the Crown is an historical drama, following a king as a mob of his angry followers try to knock down his door. It takes place over just a few minutes.
Here’s the synopsis:
With his kingdom in tatters and his subjects baying for his blood, the king hides in his throne room praying for a last-minute reprieve. But with the mob at the door, who can he trust?
We made the film at Nu Boyana studios in Sofia, Bulgaria, and shot it at more or less the same time as The Haunted House Hotel. It’s exciting to finally have both films out in the wild.
I’m extremely proud to announce that I’ve been shortlisted for this year’s Dinesh Allirajah Prize.
I’m not able to speak about the story yet. It will be available as part of an anthology published by Comma Press.
Organisers set up The Dinesh Allirajah Prize after Dinesh’s death in 2014. It was a reflection of his love of writing short fiction. This is the ninth year for the prize.
Our stories had to be on the theme of Fandom, which allowed me to revisit an idea I’d actually vaguely had back in 2010 or so, for a competition that I think involved Terry Pratchett. It’s always so cathartic to finally get a long-held idea on paper, and doubly so when it not only find a home, but is shortlisted for an award.
Tickets for the online prize giving event are available from here. You can read the original press release (if you have a Book Brunch subscription) here.
The Haunted House Hotel is now available to watch online.
The year is 1999 and Edward DeWitt has a problem. He’s been murdered. But whodunit? And can he get an Oscar-nominated documentary out of it? But will it end up being just another ghost-directed True Crime doc, or will Edward learn something about himself?
The Haunted House Hotel was a wonderful challenge, and I think everybody involved is thrilled to see it available to the public. After a couple of years in festivals – including the In The Palace International Short Film Festival – it’s finally on YouTube.
I’ve spoken before about the fun we had making this film. We were getting ready to shoot The Cost of the Crown and got the opportunity to work on this as well – so long as it was done in a week. I wrote the script in a single sitting. The challenge was to make a Tim Burton-influenced crime documentary set in the 1990s, featuring four characters.
Anyway, here’s the film, and below I’ll post director Moe Acharki’s statement.
Director Statement:
The Haunted House Hotel began as a challenge that quickly became one of the most rewarding filmmaking experiences of my career.
In 2023, during my year-long internship at Nu Boyana Film Studios, I was offered a unique deal by the studio’s CEO. if I directed a short film for the studio’s training programme, I would be given the opportunity to produce my own project there as well. The brief was simple but intentionally restrictive: a fifteen-minute crime-mystery documentary set in the 1990s, featuring four characters, written in two days and shot just two days later.
Knowing the time constraints, I turned to my frequent collaborator Mat Growcott, who wrote the screenplay in a single sitting, allowing us to move immediately into production. The film was created with students from the studio’s vocational training centre, Film Forge, who formed the core of our crew, supported by experienced industry professionals.
What followed was an intense but exhilarating shoot; two twelve-hour days of production, followed by an overnight edit so the students could see their work the very next day. Despite the pressure, the atmosphere on set was extremely positive. The crew embraced the challenge with enthusiasm, and that collective energy became a defining part of the film.
Since premiering at the WLV Screen Awards in 2024, the film has continued to find audiences, including a selection at the Academy Award-qualifying IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival in 2025. For me, the film represents what can happen when creativity, collaboration and a tight deadline come together.
What began as a training exercise became something far more special; a film made with passion, hard work, and a group of people determined to make the most of a unique opportunity. I hope viewers continue to enjoy stepping into the strange and kooky world of The Haunted House Hotel.
The Cost of the Crown will have its first festival screening next month.
The short film, written by me and Moe Acharki, was filmed at Nu Boyana in 2023. It was completed earlier this year and will premiere at the Leavesden Short Film Festival on April 23rd.
Obviously we’re excited for it to be shown as widely as possible and we’re hoping this is the first of many. I’ll update as and when news comes in.
The Cost of the Crown was filmed at around the same time as The Haunted House Hotel. We’ll have some exciting updates about that one in the coming days as well.
I said in my post about One Step Ahead that I’ve got a lot of updates over the next few days, and I’m not kidding. It’s going to be a busy few weeks!
The creative team behind The Triad of Reality, a feature length psychological thriller, have launched a Kickstarter campaign.
I was sent the script for Triad back in May, and was happy to provide some feedback. I sent my thoughts to writer/director Nicholas Holmes, and this week my social media blew up with some of what he’s been working on in the months since.
The industry is in a bad place, so it’s always nice to see indies defying the odds and making progress. I wish the team a massive good luck and can’t wait to see The Triad of Reality.
